Blood disease study details to be released

Results to be discussed next Wednesday at Hazleton hotel.

October 17, 2007|By Chris Parker Of The Morning Call

A long-awaited announcement about a yearlong study of the incidence of a rare blood disease in Schuylkill, Carbon and Luzerne counties will be held 7-9 p.m. next Wednesday at Genetti Inn & Suites, Hazleton.

The study was done by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry in conjunction with the the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

The details of the study, begun last October, will be released and explained at the inn, 1441 North Church Street, state Department of Health spokeswoman Stacey Kriedeman said.

The meeting had been scheduled for July but then was delayed several times. Officials have said the latest delay was so Department of Health employees could be thoroughly briefed on the study in order so they could answer questions.

Toxicologist Vince Seaman of the toxic substances agency said in August that the rate of polycythemia vera, a rare blood-thickening disease, is higher than normal in Schuylkill, Carbon and Luzerne. But he cautioned that the study pool was a small group of people, a "significant number" of whom lacked the gene mutation present in almost everyone who has the illness.

Many people who live in the area around the former McAdoo Associates Superfund site in Kline Township believe they have a higher incidence of cancer, polycythemia vera and other diseases. They say large amounts of industrial chemicals were dumped there and seeped into groundwater.

The state Department of Environmental Protection has said tests of wells and other water sources in the area don't show elevated levels of hazardous substances.

There has been no evidence of an "environmental cause of polycythemia vera, and we did not locate one with this work," said Lora Werner of the toxic substances agency. "This is still a question for further study."